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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Yes, I’ve been busy and that dream has always been to pursue and improve my art, as well as to be able to share it by making it available for sale. I did follow through and put together a number of items available for Third Thursday in Rio Vista. I set up a table last month. Since this was the first one of the season, there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic. I did sell a couple of packages of stationery (from my old stock). I did speak to the purchaser, who said that she would have paid double. Maybe it will be better in June.

Below are some new small paintings of places around Rio Vista.

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Another thing that I have been doing is attending some “Meet Ups” with the Sacramento Plein Air Painters Group. We met up at one of the members home in Courtland, which is in the Sacramento Delta. The property is amazing, No matter where you look, it can be a picture.

I hope that you all had a great holiday weekend. Mine was busy, as it was the first weekend that I actually took part in “Activities”. Saturday began with a “Fishing Derby” for the kids. There was to be a prize for the one who caught the “biggest fish” and one for the one who caught the “most fish”. There were three families (7 kids) that paricipated. The boy below is the one who won the prize, but not for the above categories. It was for the one who lasted the longest and for feeding the most fish. No one caught any fish.

Later in the afternoon, instead of doing a craft, we did face painting. Most of the boys wanted their arms painted instead of their faces. The kids love to have their faces painted.

Then there was a movie at 8:30. Fortunately one of the workampers took care of that. Then on Sunday morning instead of doing a scavenger hunt, I set up some lawn games, only a few kids showed up. More face painting in the afternoon and another movie. That was the extent of what I did over the weekend.

Yesterday, the holiday, the holiday campers left. I didn’t have to work, so I went into Lodi to Staples to get some prints made of my original watercolors. On the way we had to wait for a bridge to let a boat go by. It just swings aside instead of raising. It was interestong to watch and the first time since I’ve been here that I have seen the bridge operate.

I’m now trying to build up my inventory again. I did finish the tote below, so that will go to Third Thursday along with the things that I didn’t bring to Benicia, where I have rented space in an Artist’s Studio. There is a lot of traffic there, so hopefully some of my art will sell. Wish me luck!

That’s about all that I have been doing. Hopefully I will have a productive summer and that you all have a wonderful one too.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

I have the best son, He came out to help me on Mothers Day. He was able to fix my BR window that was leaking. He also fixed the gemerator exhaust pipe that had fallen. Then we took off for a road trip and ended up in Benicia on the east side of San Francisco Bay where we had lunch at Sailor Jack’s. We had a 45 minute wait for a table, so we wandered through some of the shops and galleries. I really like Benicia. It’s a quirky little seaside town. I’ll have to go back there when I can take my time and wander some more.

While I was out wandering throughout the Delta, I have made several stops to add to my art supplies. I am mainly painting with watercolor and acrylics in addition to the needle felting. With all the money that I have been spending, I thought I had better try to recoup some of it by selling some of my work.

I have been trying to get out and involved, so have been going to the Senior Center in Rio Vista on Fridays. There a few women that get together and bring their needlework. So I bring some of mine to work on too. Afterwards we haave lunch. It’s a $3.00 donation and I have met some other people too. They have encourged me to check out getting a table to set up on “Third Thursday and try to sell some of my stuff. That’s what I have done and I have been invited to do just that. This coming Thursday will be the first time. At first I didn’t think that I had enough inventory, so I just got to work and have been painting like crazy. I need to finish the tote below to add to the inventory.

While I was in Benicia, at one of the galleries, one of the artists there, had done several small paintings and displayed them on a thread spool rack. I thought it was a good idea, so I have done the same. the four paintings below are quite small. Maybe if I have more affordable art, I’ll be able to sell some of my things.

These are the first paintings that I have done to increase my invento.ry

This is the the most recent painting of the flags by the river just in front of the Rio Vista City Hall.

Here’s an accumulation of the paintings that I have done in the last week. Many of them are framed. (If you want, you can click on a pictue to enlarge it)

Wish me luck!

In addition to the paintings above, and the Tote ( hopefully it will be finished ), I will put out some Needle Felted items.

This past week has been quite pleasant and it looks like this coming week will be more of the same. I hope that you all are having the same wherever you are.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

At the end of this road is the levee road (Brannan Island Rd) and on the other side is the marina. Yes, we are below the water level.

Below are some nearby views of the Delta.

A week ago I took a road trip to Locke CA, just north of here. It’s a town that mainly Chinese lived in back in the early 1900’s. I have since gone back to paint. I’m trying to get more time in doing watercolors.

Then last week I went over to the marina just east of where I live and used their dock to do a painting. There is a lot of subject matter here in the Delta.

Another trip was to Maridian Jacobs Farm where they raise sheep. It’s the closest resource for wool roving that I use when needle felting.

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I have been keeping busy working on my various projects. I have also set up another blog where I will be posting my creations. www.artisticcreationsbys.alexander There are paintings on it now, but will post other things later as I finish them.

In the meantime I hope that you are all enjoying Mothers Day as I am. Ted came out to celebrate with me. After fixing my window leak and generator exhaust pipe, he took me out for lunch at Sailor Jack’s in Benicia. The food was good, but service was slow, but that was ok, after all it was Mothers Day. That is one little town that I will go back to visit. There are a lot of galleries and artist’s studios and it’s right on the water. We also stopped at a roadside stand on the way home, where they have the best strawberries, yumm.